(Game: 8/10 | Remake: 6/10)
I have found myself in between and all over the place in the current discourse about the value of remakes and remasters, but Konami specifically is unfortunately on the less exciting side for me. The Silent Hill 2 remake's changes to gameplay/presentation/pacing did not look appealing, the Suikoden remasters took so long that I realized I didn't even want them anymore, and now this has arrived and we'll get to that later. I got really into the Metal Gear Solid series around the time MGSV: Ground Zeroes was coming out, blasted through all the canonical entries, and was right there for the release of The Phantom Pain. For a while it was my favorite series, my online username comes straight from this entry, and some entries have remained among my favorite games through inertia. But I have not replayed these games in a decade or more, so this remake is what I was waiting for to dive back in.
Remake or no remake, I now realize that when I eventually revisited MGS3, I was always going to enjoy it a lot less than I did as a first-time player. The main appeal of these earlier games for me was the initial discovery of the story and writing, going in blind down the insane rabbit hole of complex relationships, alternate history, absurd characters, social and political commentary, and more. There's more going on narratively and thematically than piecing together a puzzle and experiencing unusual stuff for the first time—after all it's still a cool Cold War infiltration thing with great characters and high stakes, and is overall one of the most memorable games of its era. But without the novelty it definitely doesn't excite me as much, and I can feel the weight of its less interesting parts, a setting that doesn't appeal to me as much as other entries, and gameplay that's not as fun as later ones. Beyond story and combat, the game also brings a lot of unique mechanical and formal ideas as well as fun Easter eggs, and it's fun to discover that stuff, but in reality things like the Cure menu, camo system, an early boss kill, etc. are more interesting as cool ideas than they are fun to actually deal with again.
The remake's main offerings are updated graphics and a selection between modern and classic gameplay modes. The graphics are detailed and generally look good but not great. Some things have lost some of their original artistic intent, and you'll find things that are a bit bland. (It's comparable to this year's Oblivion remaster, but I actually preferred that.) The modern gameplay mode updates parts of the controls, menus, camera, and general feel to fit a bit more alongside current games, but adds unwanted movement inertia and just generally feels like a half measure that sacrifices game design but still won't satisfy those wanting something like MGSV. The game is still fun, but since the game's levels were not designed for this mode's camera/aiming or the remake's crouch walk, it's not going to feel quite as engaging or balanced as an older version. Meanwhile, I didn't play classic mode, but apparently it is not actually the game as it originally was, since some of the changes from modern mode still apply to it.
So I think this is just kind of failing to be a definitive way to play the game today, because it all needs disclaimers of how the experience is a bit worse or inauthentic but without great changes elsewhere to make up for it. I don't trust Konami right now to completely reimagine a Metal Gear game like Capcom and Square-Enix have done with some of their iconic games, so this kind of more minimal remake is the right idea, but in that case they needed to better capture the original experience instead of making this weird side version. It would seem that the main reason to play this version would be for just that, a side version, a different way to revisit the story just to mix it up, and in that sense it's fine as a variant with a different look and adjusted gameplay.
New players are not really best served by starting with this entry regardless of the remake's quality, even if it takes place earliest in the chronology, because the storytelling assumes you played the earlier games. If you have the time and option, you really might as well start with MGS1. If you want to jump into something more modern, I'd point you instead to MGSV. But if you really just want to try one game and this one looks most appealing, it will be okay. Lots of people have done it. You might as well play one of the HD ports instead of this version in that case, but again, it will be okay if it's what you really want to do. Personally, I don't think I would have got into Metal Gear if I started with this entry in this version, and I'm not incredibly enthusiastic about the game itself anymore, so when judging this package it just feels pretty good but not THE way to get into this classic game/series.
Man. Graphics in this game are kind of impressive. The texture of the face paint is so good I can feel it cracking.
